Fixing executive travel at a wealth management firm

Every trip started from scratch

A boutique wealth management firm with over $2 billion under management had no standard way of booking travel for its partners and associates. Trips were arranged by whichever assistant was free, using whatever tool was open. Traveller preferences and status memberships lived in individual assistants’ heads and got re-gathered every time. Coordination ran across time zones with no shared record, and finance had no central expense record to reconcile or forecast against.

The failures were starting to reach clients: missed connections, inconsistent hotels, partners arriving late to client events. In a business where the product is consistency, that’s not a travel problem, it’s a brand problem. The firm wanted a travel operation that matched the standard it sold.

What we did

When we looked at six months of itineraries, the decisions being made under pressure each time were mostly the same decisions. Same routes, same preferences, same hotel tiers. So the approach was simple: capture preferences once, write the firm’s policy into a tiered vendor structure, and give assistants a short list of real choices instead of an open field.

Audit first. We interviewed travellers, executive assistants and finance, went through six months of real itineraries for the recurring routes and the recurring failures, and benchmarked against how comparable consulting and law firms handle travel, so the tiers reflected what the firm actually flew rather than an idealized policy.

The blueprint. A central travel intake form that captures preferences, loyalty memberships and recurring routes, so the same questions never get asked twice. A tiered vendor matrix across airlines, hotel groups and car services, mapped to seniority and firm policy, which turns booking into a lookup. SOPs for booking, confirmation and pre-travel communication.

The systems. A shared itinerary platform with real-time updates and mobile access, linked to the CRM so client-facing staff could see where partners were. A travel card program feeding automated expense tracking, with recurring reporting on spend, supplier performance and traveller satisfaction.

Rollout. One-to-one onboarding for each key traveller and assistant, quick-reference playbooks, and a Slack channel for live questions during the transition. That channel went quiet on its own after about three weeks, which is usually the sign it’s working.

Rebuilt artifact

Before

After

1. Booked by whoever was freeCentral intake form
2. Preferences in headsTiered vendor matrix
3. Re-gathered every tripBooking SOPs
4. No shared recordShared itinerary platform
5. No central expense recordAutomated expense tracking

Where it landed

• Executive travel planning time reduced 70%.
• Expense reconciliation time cut in half.
• Handed over as a written policy, an intake form and a vendor matrix the assistants run themselves.